I faked an ovulation

Not really. But kinda.

This morning I woke up, took my temperature, and cheerfully proceeded to Fertility Friend to enter in my third day of high temps, knowing ovulation would be confirmed and I'd get crosshairs. Which I did. But instead of placing them on CD12 as I expected, Fertility Friend decided to put them on CD10:

Now, I can see why FF was confused. Trying to analyze this mess probably nearly broke Fertility Friend's processor. I have a positive OPK on that day, and the most fertile CM. The dashed crosshairs are due to conflicting data, which is because my temps look like I clearly ovulated two days later. Very confusing. Although when I discussed this with the chart guru Divasaur, she pointed out that if you use this O-date, the rise and fall in the days following ovulation somewhat resembles the pattern on my BFP chart:

Sorry it's in Centigrade. No idea why. Up until now it's always been in Farenheit. Go figure.

But here's the thing...I know I ovulated on CD12. Know it. Without a doubt. And it's all due to #8 on the list of symptoms in my chart up above: ovulation pain. I don't get it as badly as Divasaur or Rockasaur do, but I do still feel it either the day before or the day of ovulation. It's similar to cramps, but as anyone who gets ovulation pains can tell you, it's very distinct. There is absolutely no way I mistook a common cramp for O-pains, or that they occurred two days after I ovulated, no matter what a computer program says.

Which is what led me to force Fertility Friend to do this:

I made it move the crosshairs two days down, to CD12. This is NOT something I'd recommend doing if you've just started charting or are unfamiliar with how your body works. However, I've been doing this long enough now that I was confident enough to disagree strongly with FF and make it change the date.

That said, I didn't want to just tick the date myself, mostly because Fertility Friend sometimes won't give you a coverline if you do. I tinkered with adding a few high temps for the next few days, just to see if that would push FF along, but no luck - the dashed crosshairs stayed firmly fixed on CD10. So instead, I added a second positive OPK.

Women very seldom ovulate on the same day they get a positive OPK (athough that's what FF was trying to do before I changed my chart); this is because the hormone that the tests sense precedes ovulation by anywhere from 12-48 hours. My hormonal surge seems to be fairly short, but on this occasion I strongly believe I probably just caught it at the very beginning, and would likely have gotten a second positive had I tested the next day (many women do, although once you get a positive you can stop testing).

At any rate, by adding in the second - albeit fake - positive, Fertility Friend realized I couldn't possibly have ovulated on CD10 and bumped my crosshairs up to the next likely date: CD12. As you can see, it also changed my crosshairs to a solid line since the data now all works together nicely. Silly Fertility Friend!

I also noticed that although the temp rises on my former chart kinda sorta matched up with my BFP chart, once the ovulation date is pushed along to CD12, it lines up remarkably well with the chart for my last cycle, far closer than the other two charts do:

This makes me confident that I made the right choice in changing the date, and it also shows that my cycles have become quite stable after the miscarriage, which is a relief.

And now, just for fun, how about a clicky poll:

poll by twiigs.com